Heartbeats Amid Fire

20 - Giving In

Nemel pov:

"Damn it," I cursed, letting Alysa fall to the floor. Her face was flushed, her cheeks red with beads of sweat on her face. She was breathing heavily, appearing to have a fever. She coughed and convulsed once, curling up and shivering with a groan.

With a click of my tongue in annoyance, I looked on either side of the corridor – there was no one else who could deal with her, so I reached for her to pick her up in my arms. She shivered again and unconsciously curled up against me while holding my tunic in her fist.

"Cold," she mumbled, pressing herself against me more. I felt sick to the stomach from her gesture, but her burning temperature made me suppress the urge to throw her on the floor and leave her to die, all the more because her mana was priceless to us at the moment.

Turning, I strode down the corridor with her still in my arms. As the moments passed, I couldn't help but notice that she was much smaller than any other person I had seen and met before. She was almost fragile, seeming like she would break from the slightest extra force. Of course, every human seemed to be as fragile as Alysa despite the power they had held over us during the time our mana had been sealed, but there was something far more delicate about this human in my arms.

As much as a hated it, my primal instinct as a man made me curious of her as a woman. Anyone could tell that she was beautiful – her skin porcelain-like, her eyes like sapphires, and her golden hair falling in soft curls over her dainty shoulders. She was lean but with delicate curves that accentuated her charm as a woman.

A bitter scoff of amusement escaped me. "Well, perhaps I could ask the commander if I could have a taste of her. It will serve as some punishment, but will perhaps better than bruising her."

I clenched my jaw in disgust at the thoughts I had had. While there were Zeros who had been more than happy to humiliate humans the same way they had been humiliated, I could not bring myself to think of physically forcing myself upon a woman, no matter who it was, just because I thought they deserved the worst possible punishment. Still, there was no denying that I was oddly stirred by the way Alysa was clinging to me right now.

In the time I had known her, right from when I saw her in Veritas to her stay here as our healer, she had been very different from every single human I had seen in my life. Besides her importance as the Alpha healer, she had been nothing but kind to everyone she met, even Zeros. Lyle and Kian had been unexpectedly adoring of her, as had been the two children that had come to Ozryn from Amzell. The radiance in the smile Alysa had when speaking with them was one I had never seen any human give even to their own loved ones. While I was tempted to think of it as fake, I could not find anything that indicated any bit of negativity in her.

Lyle and Kian had spoken of how she had taken care of them while in Amzell, and it had shocked not just me but all the other Zeros. She was seen in a different light since then, treated kinder and with lenience to mistakes that were not a big deal. I was still annoyed though, and I couldn't stop from finding a reason to inflict pain.

"Rayner," Alysa suddenly hummed in desperation, and a single tear rolled down from her closed eyes. I could not understand why that angered me.

Unexpectedly, I recalled the time she had come to me for protection when she had been confronted by her so-called uncle. She had trusted me as against a human who she should have trusted more than any Zero despite any circumstance. But she had been only wary of the man who had claimed to be her uncle, and she had come to me for protection, even holding onto my tunic while she watched the man fiercely.

The recollection made me clench my jaw in an emotion I couldn't quite understand. I felt unusually sympathetic towards Alysa suddenly, and my loathing was nearly non-existent. As much as I wished to deny it and think of how humans had only been ruthless to us, I was beginning to waver in the disdain I had for Alysa.